Bee City USA: Pollination Celebration Week; June 16-25th 2016

Pollination Kick Off at the Renaissance Hotel

Last night was the official beginning of Asheville’s 4th Pollination Celebration. The Renaissance Hotel, in downtown Asheville, hosted an open gathering of pollinator-friendly people and businesses.

Bee City USA, one of Asheville’s great pollinator champions, organized the event. Attendees wore wings and bee antennae, drank honey-drinks, ate honey snacks and the lobby was a-buzz with pollinator talk!

Pollination Celebration is about supporting all native pollinators, but last night the plight of the Monarch Butterfly took center stage.

The Plight of the Monarch Butterfly

The Monarch Butterfly is the poster child for our human responsibility to maintain and develop pollinator habitat. In most cases this means planting native wildflowers where ever possible.

The Monarch is a great example because the caterpillar stage of the Monarch’s development requires milkweed plants for food. Monarch Watch is a great website with lots of information on milkweed for your region and resources for supporting the Monarch Butterfly.

At the Pollinator Celebration Event, Sow True Seed made native milkweed seed bombs. These balls of clay and seeds help create new habitat for Monarch Butterflies. We also met Joyce and Ina, avid Monarch activists and experts. They educated folks on how to look after milkweed plants and the Monarch eggs. Twin Leaf Brewing offered samples of a honey-infused saison, while beeswax and honey products were available from many local sources.

Sow True Seed sells five different milkweed varieties that can provide forage for hungry Monarch caterpillars. You can also find pollinator friendly flowers in our catalog by looking for the ‘bee’ symbol. If you haven’t considered it yet, think about planting some pollinators this year!

There are plenty of activities happening over the next week, here are some highlights: